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Should Team GB boycott Beijing?

We are all familiar with the appalling record china has on human rights and the Tibet occupation,do you think china has made enough progress on these issues to warrant our participation in the forthcoming olympics?,or do you beleive our inclusion leads us open to accusations of complicity and immorality,lending credance and legality to the heinous nature of the chinese state.Darfur,animal rights also blight chinese claims to be a beacon of civilisation and democracy which are fundamental attributes any country requires in order to hold an olympic games.Would you support our athletes if they decided to boycott or in the least make some form of protest or do you believe they should suspend any moral concerns they have and merely seek personal glory?

Well, now if one takes this approach, one might wonder about Russia and I don't understand that conflict enough to know as to whether Georgia could be included.

But just like in the world cup, you've got good people everywhere even should I not like individual teams.

A billion Chinese and some of those regions are as remote as can be. People from those remote regions and from tribes that have been there for a long time have little to do with what their central government does.

Not only that, but face it, China was relatively advanced compared to most of Europe 2000 years ago. That civilisation has been there, though the recent Totalitarian regimes from what I gather have done great damage.

Penguin Runner: I am not moralising, merely stating FACTS. Facts are things that a lot of people struggle to swallow. If you read my stuff correctly, you will understand that I am not singling out any particular nation for criticism, merely making the argument that all regimes are guilty of various misdemeanours at various times.

I suspect that you struggle to maintain objectivity, however: what does it matter if I spell Brasil in the manner used by these people? Not English? Sounds xenophobic to me. "English" is a habit of mind: it means being empirically minded, tolerant of varied opinion (I canīt always do that) and reasonable in oneīs judgements.

Sorry, PR, just read your response to my statement about the leaky nature of arms embargoes, and I still donīt get it. If you are upset because I said that I wasnīt going to support Red Chinese, it hardly helps establish your multi-cultural credentials to assail me for not being sufficiently English!!!

Having read your other contibutions you seem very sympathetic to the Chinese people, and yes, they have endured a lot. I have read that 20 or more millions of their people were killed during the Mao regime, presumably during the Cultural Revolution. They lost 20 million plus at the hands of the Japanese in the 1930s and 1940s. And a colleague from a previous field of endeavour explained the effects of the Cultural Revolution and the "Great Leap Forward" on his family in Shanghai. All their furniture sold for a bag of carrots, and that sort of thing.

That having been written, for the Chinese central authorities this games is of vital political importance, perhaps more than it was to the Americans in '96 and more than it will be to us in 2012. For Red Chinaīs governing class, this is an exercise in legitimacy enhancement, one that seems to be going very well in terms of organisation and spectacle.

Penguin Runner: I am not moralising, merely stating FACTS. Facts are things that a lot of people struggle to swallow. If you read my stuff correctly, you will understand that I am not singling out any particular nation for criticism, merely making the argument that all regimes are guilty of various misdemeanours at various times.

I suspect that you struggle to maintain objectivity, however: what does it matter if I spell Brasil in the manner used by these people? Not English? Sounds xenophobic to me. "English" is a habit of mind: it means being empirically minded, tolerant of varied opinion (I canīt always do that) and reasonable in oneīs judgements.

Doesnīt it?"

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That's true, but calling oneself "Biggringo" and spelling Brasil in the way the Spaniards do as well, could in turn make one wonder on one's motive.

PR, I do not have any particular motives, more a general orientation which is described below. Plus, Brasil was a Portuguese colony, not a Spanish one.

Since you asked about my motivations, I will let you in on a couple of things. In my past, I learned a lot about arms deals, technology trading, power and corruption. I hate politicians and politics, for propaganda, deceit and the threat of coercion are central to the oily arts that they practise.

I have had some of my basic human rights denied in Britain, and moved abroad in the hope that my wife would be happier in her own culture. I would prefer to be in Britain, but my wife has had to undergo a radical hysterectomy for uterine cancer and we are waiting on the results of her biopsy. I am running out of money because of over-extended (read: greedy c______s) banks in America and Britain, which has clobbered sterling on the currency markets.

My only solace is physical strength and the hell-fire certainty that the world is run by venal and evil bast-----s.

In short, my mood is black, my outlook on the world ultra-realist and what you take as my "moralising", well, that is post-cynical.

On a personal level, no offence intended. Just thought I should explain to you what makes me write the things that I write.

PR, I do not have any particular motives, more a general orientation which is described below. Plus, Brasil was a Portuguese colony, not a Spanish one.

Since you asked about my motivations, I will let you in on a couple of things. In my past, I learned a lot about arms deals, technology trading, power and corruption. I hate politicians and politics, for propaganda, deceit and the threat of coercion are central to the oily arts that they practise.

I have had some of my basic human rights denied in Britain, and moved abroad in the hope that my wife would be happier in her own culture. I would prefer to be in Britain, but my wife has had to undergo a radical hysterectomy for uterine cancer and we are waiting on the results of her biopsy. I am running out of money because of over-extended (read: greedy c______s) banks in America and Britain, which has clobbered sterling on the currency markets.

My only solace is physical strength and the hell-fire certainty that the world is run by venal and evil bast-----s.

In short, my mood is black, my outlook on the world ultra-realist and what you take as my "moralising", well, that is post-cynical.

On a personal level, no offence intended. Just thought I should explain to you what makes me write the things that I write.

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That's true, but calling oneself "Biggringo" and spelling Brasil in the way the Spaniards do as well, could in turn make one wonder on one's motive.

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"Biggringo" - Spanish, Big Whiteman and I said "spelling Brasil in the way the Spaniards do AS WELL."

OKay, then here is where I'm coming from, and with what you wrote, it sounds a bit like say, the way the Cubans were perceived in the past, '60s mainly, saying "Big Gringo" can come off like a Yanqui (Yankee)go home sort of attitude.

But maybe you aren't speaking that radically, maybe like Critical Mass bike rallies, green party type of things.

It's good to reflect on things, I grew up, listening to the World Service of the BBC, but I'd also tune in Radio Moscow and Havana just to hear what they are saying.

Che is such an icon nowadays but of course, I'm not drawing any conclusions.

Maybe in short, what you were saying could sound a bit socialistic.

It's no big deal I got decked a grade in college because I wasn't sure who was right or wrong in the conflicts back then, '80s actually.

Er, PR, we seem to have strayed some from the original subject. My mood is a bit grim on account of my wifeīs circumstances, among other things, but the bit about Big Whiteman; well, thatīs what my Latin American amigos call me, so no worries on the Bwana-front! I am more of a muppet than master here, and my attempts to speak the lingo usually provoke gales of laughter (a sort of Manuel-in-reverse, if you remember Fawlty Towers).

To boycotts: My experience of this yearīs Olympics boils down to football (male and female), volleyball (m and f), beach volleyball (m and f), basketball (m and f) and handball (m and f). So I have decided to boycoott the games in protest at the parochial and narrow nature of the coverage.